"To Ancient Noise" is a compilation of manipulated environmental sounds. Whether field recordings, found sounds, radio snippets, or other odd recorded artifacts of audio, these elements are worked by sound artists in interesting and often startling ways.

In some cases the sounds may not be processed much at all, but are rather selected for their rhythmic virtues. In other cases, sounds have been layered and heavily effected into lush and alien soundscapes, dark and mysterious.

With but a few samples, artists can immerse listeners in dreamy escapist paradises, or harsh dehumanized dystopias. The tracks on this compilation were made with captured and found samples. The artists were allowed to layer and process them with digital and/or analogue effects, but were requested to use no synthesizers or other conventional instruments.

Lest the idea be gotten that I think this compilation intends to be innovative or avant-garde, allow me to put that to rest. Manipulation of found sounds is a well-entrenched "tradition" in the audio arts, dating back in practice to the advent of magnetic tape, in the 1930s, and decades earlier than that in theory. What I want to show is that it is still going strong, continuing to evolve and mutate as new technologies enable new possibilities (and sounds to discover).

Featured on this compilation are the following artists: brekekekexkoaxkoax, aodl, Fred Yarm, Saluki Regicide, Spagirus, Naturhistorische Museum der Klänge, mystified, thE sounD of dirT, Djinnestan, Rafael Flores, Kava Project, forma, C. Reider, David Leith, Tree Helicopter, Ronnie Cramer, J. Dippold, & Onemancult.

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